$200-ish to burn...where should I go?

My boyfriend just announced that he wants to take me to one of the long list of restaurants that I've read about, obsessed over, and yet never had the means to enjoy. I can't decide! Help? Budget for wine & gratuity too....Gramercy Tavern? Bouley? Thanks!

If you're talking about dinner in the dining room at Gramercy Tavern, a $200 budget that includes wine, tax & gratuity will be very tight. Sticking with the basic 3-course prix-fixe and depending on what you drink, think more like $225-$250. The Tavern Room, however, is definitely doable. In fact, you should come in well under $200. You can see menus and prices on the website.

Bouley's dinner menu is a la carte. If you choose the least expensive dishes and watch what you drink, you should be able to do it for $200. If you stretch, you will have mor options. For some reason, there are currently no menus on the Bouley website. Menupages had the menus with prices though I don't know how current they are.

Thanks for your responses! $200 has some flexibility, but basically I just wanted to make it clear that Per Se and the like aren't options. Also on my wish list are Babbo, Prune, Union Sqaure Cafe, The Modern, and I'm considering divvying up the offer into two moderately priced dinners....Momofuku and Fatty Crab, eg.

I like Momofuku a lot and go there often but personally don't think it's a very "special" place to eat. If I had $200, I'd go to one place where everything is as good as the food, with the food still being the crown jewel. For that, you indeed need to try for a place like Babbo, Eleven Madison Park, Gramercy Tavern. Boyfriends like yours make the rest of us "Shake Shack" SOs look bad...

Nothing in particular. He had a very successful craigslist transaction and he thought this would be a nice way to spend some of the profit. So it's all about the fooood, though ambiance is always important. So really I suppose it's a celebration in of itself, as we've never done anything like this before.

My boyfriend took me to Eleven Madison Park for my bday last weekend, and it was amazing. Tons of complimentary bites/amuses, and very polished service. I definitely don't have the means to go to these restaurants ever, so it was a really great experience. We had the three-course dinner with one glass of wine for me, and that came out to a little over $210 with tax. If you skip the wine, it would probably come to about $225 - $250, all in. Worth it.